Lightning-arrester



(No Model.) W. K. FREEMAN LIGHTNING ARRBSTER.

N0. 5'78,9 81. Patented Mar. 16, 1897 asses UNITED STATES PATE T OFFICE.

\VALTER K. FREEMAN, OF FOR" \VAYNE, INDIANA.

LlGHTNlNG-ARRESTER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 578,981, dated March 16, 1897.

Application filed July 5,1895. Serial No. 555,051. (No model.)

To a, who/nil: Hwy cOILcc -IL:

130 it known that I, WALTER K. FREEMAN, of Fort \Vayne, in the county of Allen and State of Indiana, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Lightning-Arresters and I do hereby declarethe following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompan ying drawin gs,formin g a part of this specification, and to the letters of reference marked thereon.

This invention relates to improvements in lightning-arresters, and more particularly such as are designed for use in connection with lines adapted to carry or carrying heavy currents or currents of high voltage, the objects being to afford aread y avenue of slight resistance for the escape of the abnormal static discharge incident to lightning and at the same time to provide a means for breaking or extinguishing any are which might be established by the passage of the current before the appliances can be injured or burned and before the working current can ground to any appreciable extent.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a front elevation of a device embodying my invention. Fig: 2 is a top plan view of the same with the pendant and its support removed. Fig- 3 is a detail section on the line,:r 50-, Fig. 2.

Like letters of reference in the se\ cral figures indicate the same'pa'rts.

.I so

In carrying this invention into practice it has been one of my chief ends to provide an apparatus which while embodying the qualities heretofore mentioned will at the same time be entirely automatic and certain in its action, requiring absolutely no attention after having been properly connected; and with this object in view I prefer to employ a pendulous electrode through which the current incident to lightning is discharged and by the deflection of which the are which would otherwise he established by the passage of the current is broken .or extinguished, the passage of the current itself, through mechanism to be presently described, causing the pendulous electrode to be deflected after the initial discharge, preventing the formation of the arc and allowing the electrode to assume its normal position and restore the conditions previously existing.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, wherein I have illustrated an exceedingly simple embodiment of the invention, the letter A indicates a metallic framing, usually an iron casting, adapted to be secured to .a support, as by screws passing through the open ings a or in any other ordinary well'known manner and having projecting from the front portion a transversely-curved bracket 13, to one end of which there is attached, usually by being inserted in a socket b, an upwardlyprojecting electrode-support O, to the upper end of which the electrode D,terminating in a ball (1 at the lower end, is suspended and adapted to hang in a vertical position, as shown clearly in Fig. 1.

Immediately beneath the ball d the bracket is provided with aninsulated fixed electrode E, the air-gap between the said pendulous and fixed electrode being only of sufficient width to prevent the formation of an are unless started by a static-a1 discharge or a discharge of higher voltage than the line is normally intended to carry. This fixed electrode is preferably simply a bolt which passes down through an insulator 1*, held in the bracket, and in addition is preferably provided above the bracket with a series of washers G, insulated from the boltand insulated one from the other by disks g, of mica or its equivalent,

and the whole number of washers insulated from t e bracket by a bottom washer G, preferably of somewhat larger diameter and covered with an insulating-covering g.

The connection through which the discharge takes place is made with the bottom washer, and thus the statical discharge must first jump from washer to washer until it reaches the electrode, and must then jump across the air-gap to the pendulous electrode, which latter through any suitable connection made with the base or bracket forms the other terminal, being grounded, as usual.

In the preferred construction the conncction with the line-wire is made to the washer just mentioned, and in order to cause the pendulous electrode to swing laterally away from the fixed electrode this line connection is formed into a coil having a suitable core and constituting an electromagnet located in proximityto, but to one side of, the fixed electrode. With such an arrangement it will be seen that when there is no statical' discharge taking place the magnet is not energized, and hence the pendulous electrode hangs in position in proximity to the fixed electrode, but the instant such a discharge takes place the magnet is energized and draws the pendulous electrode away from the fixed electrode, thereby increasing the air-gap and interrupting the circuit, and consequently the magnet is no longer energized, and the pendulous electrode returns to normal position ready to permit of another statieal discharge.

, I prefer to form on the bracket a fingerlike projection or core II, extending in the. are ofa circle just beyond the radius of the pendulous electrode and to one side of the fixed electrode, and this core II is adapted to have a few turns of the line connection wound about it, forming a coil I. The core may be and preferably is flat or widened, in order to present a large magnetic field, although this is not essential; nor is it essential to the operation of the device that the movable electrode should be returned to normal position by gravity, as other well-known and obvious equivalents may be employed. j

The embodiment of the apparatus shown-is exceedingly simple, there beingno com-ph eated or finely-adjusted parts to get out of order, and in practice it is found highly ellicient for the purposes intended.

In connecting the device it is simply necessary to'eonnect the. line-wire with the line at any point desired and provide the movable electrode support or bracket with a good ground connection, as will be obvious to those skilled in the-art. i

Q 1 Having thus described myinvention, what carried thereby and the movable electrode having a magnetic pendulous end normally standing in proximity to but out of contact with the fixed electrode, of the curved elcc- Y tromagnet located in proximity to and at one side of the fixed electrode but out of. the path electrode is permitted to have a free movement, said eleetromagnet being connected in circuit through the air-gap between the electrodes; substantially as described! 2. In a lightning-arrester, the combination with a bracket or support carrying a fixed electrode, and a magnetic pend ulous electrode having a magnetic end suspended to norm ally hang in proximity to but out of contact with the fixed electrode," of an clectromagnct curved to conform to the a 0 described by the pendulous position of the movable electrode, located at one side of said electrodes in position to deflect the pendulous electrode away from the fixed electrode, said magnet being connected in circuit through the air-gap between the electrodes; substantially as described. v

3. In a lightning-afrester, the combination with the bracket or support and the pendulous electrode, of theinsulated electrode pro- I. In a lightning-arrester the combination with the bracket orsupport and the pendulous or movable electrode, of the fixed electrode, an insulator for said electrode mounted in the bracket, a series of Washers with'interposed disks of insulation surrounding the fixed electrode, a core carried by the bracket and projecting at one side of the fixed electrode, and a circuit connectiop coiled about the core and connected with the bottom washer; subh stantially as described.

IVAL'IER K. FREEMAN.

\Vitnesses:

ALEX. S. STEUART, A. M. KELLY. 

